Big Brothers Big Sisters Film National Videos

May 10, 2009|Submitted by Brian Kelly

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America visited Connecticut recently to shoot footage for two videos that will be used to encourage accelerated nationwide participation in its expanding Latino Mentoring Program.

For the last seven years, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, founded in 1904, has been making a concerted effort to reach out, through its more than 400 affiliate agencies, to the country's fastest growing, yet traditionally most underserved ethnic segment. These just completed film projects are the latest example of this ongoing effort.

The target audience for the first video is Latino males, who it's hoped will inquire and then volunteer as mentors to Latino children. For the second video, the target audience is the Latino family. The objective of this video is to educate families about the Big Brothers Big Sisters brand of mentoring and its proven benefit to individuals and communities. Both videos are made possible via a grant from MetLife, Inc., a leading provider of insurance and other financial services to millions of individuals and institutions in the United States. The videos were shot in unseasonably warm early spring weather over the course of two days at three sites in the Greater Hartford area. Coordinating the filming locally was Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters, the largest of the 3 Big Brothers Big Sisters affiliates in Connecticut. "Bigs" (adult mentors) and "Littles" (the children they mentor), and the families of those "Littles" from Nutmeg's own Latino Mentoring Program had starring roles in the filming.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America requested that Nutmeg take part in the videos due to the non-profit's track record for strong outreach to Connecticut's Latino communities. In 2007, Nutmeg was honored with a Community Service Award by the State's Latino & Puerto Rican Affairs Commission for its Latino Mentoring Program.

"We're thrilled to have been selected by our parent organization for this filming, said Laura Green, President and CEO at Nutmeg. "And we're equally as thrilled that the finished videos will soon be available nationwide so all participating affiliates will have the opportunity to make even greater inroads into the Latino communities within their service areas."

Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters is an affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Its mission is to improve the lives of disadvantaged children and enable them to become responsible adults by creating one-to-one relationships between them and caring adult volunteers. : www.nutmegbigbrothersbigsisters.org. The toll-free phone number is: 1-800-237-5437 (KIDS).